Update - July 7

I had three radiation treatments this week starting on Tuesday.  There is no pain or real discomfort involved in a treatment session.  I just lie on a table while the huge linear accelerator buzzes around me for 10 minutes, and then I leave.  Side effects don't usually occur until two or three weeks after radiation begins, and I've had at least two friends who say they never had any bothersome side effects, so I'm hoping to be like them.

Our friends Mark and Michele Broadway left on Saturday morning for Zambia.  We all agreed that it was strange for us to be taking them to the airport instead of the other way around.  We will be trading spaces for the next month--we moved into their house here in Austin and they will be staying in ours at Namwianga!  They had already planned to stay a week and a half after the medical mission,  and Michele has agreed to teach my English classes for me during that time.

A dear friend sent me a chicken story this week.    He had heard a sermon on thankful prayer. A preacher shared a story told by Jim Bill McInteer that supposedly came through his grandmother.  Here it is:  How do chickens drink?  They go down to the water, then raise their heads up to the sky to thank God, then swallow the water.  Jim Bill said he never wants to be outdone in prayer by a chicken. 

I agree, and I'm finding many things to be thankful for each day of this journey.